'Fowl play' in Hamburg as police chase down one cocky suspect

It started at about 11:45 p.m. Friday when dispatchers received a call from Buffalo's Best Pizzeria about a "suspicious character" hanging around the restaurant at McKinley Parkway and Lake Avenue near closing time, according to a post on the department's Facebook page headlined "Fowl Play."

He had two wings, black feathers and a bright red comb on top of his head, and he strutted like the cock of the walk around the parking lot near the Blasdell village limits.

(Courtesy of Hamburg Police)

He was a rooster, of course, and he ran, forcing Officer Nicholas Palmer to chase him down, with help from Officer Anthony Venditti, who didn't quail at the unusual assignment.

"As he refused to provide any identification, our officers had no choice but to bring him in," Mark Bernas, a public safety dispatcher, wrote in the tongue-in-cheek post.

Hamburg police asked anyone missing the rooster, suspected to be from the Croad Langshan breed, to call 648-5111, Ext. 0.

"Lake View had chicken dinners, maybe he escaped," wrote Maureen Eagan Smith, referring to the volunteer fire company in the town.

Hamburg police don't have a chicken coop, so the rooster is staying at a ranch outside the town limits for now.

Stephen T. Watson – Stephen T. Watson reports on development, real estate and business in the towns of Amherst and Clarence, along with development, government and school districts throughout the Northtowns. A native of the Town of Tonawanda, he worked at the Post-Standard newspaper in Syracuse before starting at The Buffalo News in 2001.